Irish Arts Review

John Ffrench: A Life Lit by ColourAuthor(s): Peter LambSource: Irish Arts Review (2002-), Vol. 24, No. 2 (Summer, 2007), pp. 116-117Published by: Irish Arts ReviewStable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25503594 .

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JOHN FFRENCH: A LIFE LIT BY COLOUR

CERAMICS

John ffrench:

A life lit by

colour

Exuberance and invention are synonymous with the ceramic art of John ffrench who -^

is honoured this year with a lifetime achievement exhibition in Kilkenny, writes PETER LAMB B

1 John ffrench in

Co Galway, 2005

2 Salad bowl with

plant design, Kin vara, 2005

3 Dia rmuid's

Chariot, a tiled wall

piece, Kinvara, 1997

4 Bird plaque, with

stamped, sprigged and painted decoration, Arklow

Studio Pottery, 1965

]T ohn ffrench (Fig 1), the pioneer of contemporary pottery in

Ireland - known for his bright colours and unusual shapes -

has been making original ceramics for over half a century.

I His work has always been popular and, on at least two

occasions in the 1950s and 1960s, his exhibitions in Dublin

completely sold out, at the moment of opening. Yet his name

today is relatively unknown in his native Ireland because he has

lived abroad for much of his life, principally in Italy, India and

America. No published study of his many scattered works has ever

been made, so it is welcome news that a one-man show, this sum

mer, will trace ffrench's career in its entirety for the first time.

With this exhibition, the Crafts Council of Ireland will be break

ing new ground by honouring a craftsman with a life-time

achievement show. It is apt that the venue should be in Kilkenny

as it was there that ffrench executed his earliest Irish work in the

1950s, introducing into Ireland a modernist style of pottery that

was new and exciting at the time. His work was colourful and dec

orative in a Mediterranean way, as he had lived and worked in

Florence 1951-5. His shapes were very experimental and took the

Irish commentators by surprise, 'too obstinately asymmetrical'1

said one, 'almost wickedly provocative'2 said another, 'tortured

ashtrays at three guineas a piece,' said Myles na Gopaleen.3 But

this was the spirit of the age and ffrench was influenced by the

contemporary Italian ceramics of, for example, Guido Gambone

and Salvatore Meli. Their work was sculptural, brightly coloured

and very different from the studio pottery then being made in

these Isles: the 'little brown pots' of the Bernard Leach school. He

was also influenced by Miro, Matisse and the Cubist paintings of

Braque and Picasso, whose distortions liberated his generation

from the constraints of tradition (Fig 5). Ffrench's pots were all

116| IRISH ARTS REVIEW SUMMER 2007

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hand-built, colourful and non-utilitarian, and he sold them

through the Waddington Gallery in Dublin, where they were

given equal status with contemporary paintings and sculpture.

Ffrench's background was cosmopolitan: his father, from a

Catholic gentry family in Co Galway, had worked in South

Africa and China; his mother was Italian from Milan, with

Christian and Moslem ancestors. Ffrench grew up in Castle

ffrench, Co Galway. As a student in the National College of

Art, Dublin, he learned much about pattern and design from his

teacher Lucie Charles. He then moved to Italy to acquire pot

tery skills at the Istituto Statale d'Arte in Florence, and stayed

on for another three years, part of a cosmopolitan milieu, learn

ing his trade in a potter's studio.

In 1957 ffrench went to India to teach and to pot, basing him

?^ self in Calcutta for three years. He also worked as a folk-art

I/

collector for the local Design Centre of West Bengal,

travelling widely. For a while, he lived in the ashram

at Sevagram, the last home of Mahatma Gandhi,

where belief in the importance of manual labour,

I *

as a central part of the happy life, affirmed his own

|f| craft philosophy and way of living. ?Ivll'

I.

ooe

The Indian love of pattern, design and

colour, seen all around him during his travels,

influenced his later work, especially at the

Arklow Studio Pottery (1962-9), which he ran

on his return to Ireland (Fig 4). His appoint ment was one of the government initiatives, to

improve design in Irish industry, that followed

the damning Scandinavian Report of 1962.

Ffrench designed new, colourful art

/ wares, decorated with har

painting, stamping and

gilding, which were well

received: 'to see a ^^

/ ffrench drinking set is to

want to own it no matter

what the cost', wrote the

Evening Herald.* The pro

duction included mobiles,

jewellery, sculpture and wall

panels, as well as tableware, but

the enterprise closed down when

ffrench and his family moved to

America in 1969. They settled in

Stockbridge, Massachusetts, where

he and his wife, Primm, worked as art

i

teachers. They also founded the Dolphin Studio in their base

ment, and ffrench widened his repertoire to include batik and

silk-screen printing; their colourful Dolphin Studio calendar was

initiated in 1972. In ceramics, ffrench made wall-pieces based on

imaginary buildings and villages, and others (from 1993) at his

Skl

F . I G _ '

U. ,,

' ., -

d

m

^Nt

/?*l"r

\? ^

Vfc

F*

holiday studio in^.^jj|ppi!lli.ilji,..

Galway, exploring Irish myth and

legend (Fig 3). A continuous stream of

| vessels and dishes, covered with brightly coloured patterns, has also continued to

pour forth (Fig 2). These possess the wonder

ful quality of 'somebody expressing joy'5 that

Q has characterised all his life's work, and will be

part of the display in Kilkenny.

PETER LAMB is an Irish ceramic collector who has recently

completed an in-depth study of the life and work of John ffrench.

John ffrench, 'A Retrospective Exhibition 1951-2007', National Craft Gallery,

Kilkenny 11 August-7 October. All images ?The Artist.

Vgr q

'U. 5 Still Life with

Mandolin, gouache on board, painted by John ffrench and

shown at his first

exhibition in Dublin, in 1951

1 GHG, 'Work of Irish ceramists in Dublin exhibi

tion', unidentified Irish newspaper, undated (John

ffrench collection). 2 Three join to display their pottery', Irish Press, 4

June 1956.

3 Reported by John ffrench.

4 'Keeping Arklow Pottery designs up-to-date',

Evening Herald, 20 Nov. 1962.

5 Interview with Peter Ting, ceramic designer, in the

film documentary John ffrench, an Irish Potter

directed by David Shaw-Smith (for release in

2007).

SUMMER 2007 IRISH ARTS REVIEW |l!7

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